"People that can hurt you, the ones that can really hurt you, are the ones that are close enough to do it. People that get inside you and tear you apart, and make you feel like you're never gonna recover."

Frank Castle in "Marvel's Daredevil"

        The Huntress dragged her fingertips over the walls as she walked towards the fight. With each silent step she could hear the fight going on; she could hear them killing each other and somehow this did not put a smile on her face. Instead, a grim and astringent expression was plastered upon her normally soft features. Her green eyes looked dark as though someone had coloured over them, but it was simply the shadows all around her, and the shadows in her mind that fought to escape. 

        There was something inside of her that wanted out, but she forced it down and focused on the task at hand. For if she were to fail, she placed her hand upon her stomach; though she could not feel the markings underneath her shirt and jacket, she knew they were there and how much pain it had caused her.

        When she entered the large room, there was debris and clutter all over. Fires were burning in small amounts, nothing threatening, merely the symptoms that came with chaos. She stepped over beams and concrete slabs, shattered glass, and underneath it all she could have sworn she saw the severed arm of one of the Death Squad members. Nothing shifted inside of her when she saw that, however; she felt no sympathy for them. She felt nothing, when she thought about it, but she tried not to think about the empty vat that she was. 

         Knowing that there was some part of her fighting to get out, the Huntress focused on the task at hand, powering through as she glanced up where the fight was happening. The room itself towered tall, though it hardly showed outside on the mountain. The big circular roof had been opened, and from where she stood at the very bottom, she could see her target, Tony Stark, nearly at the top, his hand held out towards the other man.

       She knew him, but only as the Winter Soldier.

       She focused her power on the distracted mind of Tony Stark, and immediately the connection was made and it was as though she had been there before. Bypassing everything that was of no importance, she entered the part of his mind that fueled rage. The memories that created so much hatred and the desire to kill the Winter Soldier flooded the Huntress's mind, but she did not gasp in pain when she saw the reason. 

          In her head, Tony Stark's fresh memory of an ancient event flowed in front of her. She saw the Winter Soldier, though it were years ago he looked no different than he did just now. It unravelled right in front of her, the Winter Soldier causing the car accident, pulling the man from the front seat and pausing only for a second when he saw his face; they recognized each other, but just like the Huntress couldn't remember why she recognized the Winter Soldier, the Winter Soldier did not know why he knew Howard Stark. And just like any good soldier, her carried through on his mission. His fist came down on Howard Stark's face, pummeling him until he was dead. And then he walked around to the other side of the car, where a woman was crying out for her dead husband, desperate to hear his voice one more time. The empty look on the Winter Soldier's face when he strangled Maria Stark was the exact one the Huntress had on as she brought forth this fresh memory into Tony Stark's mind, reminding him exactly why he wanted to kill the Winter Soldier.

       Above her head, Tony Stark felt the rage, the agony, he could almost feel the pain his parents suffered at the hands of the Winter Soldier. And there he was, trying to climb out of the mountain base and escape with his life when Tony's parents had been brutally murdered without any remorse. He was trying to aim, trying to shoot the man, but his targeting system was malfunctioning. His mask lifted and he squinted to try and make the shot himself. Below, the Huntress pulled on the mental strings in Tony's head, causing him a rush of pain just as the shot was released from his suit. She had not done it to prevent Tony from making the shot, in fact, she was not sure why she had done it. It missed the Winter Soldier by a metre, but it did enough damage to the mechanics that lifted the base open. The roof came crashing down, and the Winter Soldier had to give up on his plans to escape.

      This was a fight they all had to face.

      She assessed the situation above her, trying to decide if she should climb up there and begin fighting, but the fight was about to be brought down to her. Tony Stark managed to fly up to where the Winter Soldier was and wrapped his arms around his neck with the intent to strangle him. The words that came from his lips, the words the Huntress could hear because she was still inside of his dazed head, they struck her harder than she expected them too. Enough to make her pause.

      "Do you even remember them?"

       "I remember all of them."

          Tony was struggling to remain in the air, his suit was damaged beyond repair, and yet he was not giving up. He was fighting against two super soldiers in a broken suit, but he had his anger fueling him, thanks to the Huntress. 

           Steve Rogers jumped out from one of the side platforms, wrapping his arms around Tony and the weight of the three of them becoming too much for the damaged suit. The eloquent fall made the Huntress step out of the way, and she watched, expressionless, as they crashed down onto the ground before her. 

            Tony and Steve slid down a concrete ravine where there were open slats overlooking the mountain itself. The Winter Soldier landed a single level above, upon a metal grate. Face down, he was hurt but the fight was still in him; the fall had merely slowed him down. The Huntress ignored him, though, because her task was to make Tony want to kill, to give him the mental strain to fight to the death, to kill his friend and his enemy.

       "Ophelia?" She heard the voice come from the Winter Soldier, only the tone of his voice suggested he was someone else. She looked down at him as she walked towards the edge of the concrete, where down below both Steve and Tony were slowly getting back on their feet, only to fight once again. Looking into his eyes as she walked by, she revealed just how little the woman he loved was in there. He groaned and pushed himself to his feet, he needed to intervene before she got hurt. "OPHELIA!"

        She turned and looked at him, her lip raised slightly into a grimace; all he was doing was distracting her. Taking a quick-paced stride over to him, she brought her shoulder into his ribs. She could feel as his hands wrapped around her as he stopped her with ease, but there was hesitation in his movements because he didn't want to hurt her. 

             Below, Steve and Tony were beginning to fight once again, but Bucky's head was focused on the fact Ophelia was no longer Ophelia. He knew then how she had felt in Washington, when he had riddled her with bullets, broke her down almost to the point of death. That made fighting her so much harder, but he knew that he needed to get her to stop. He spun her around so that her back was pressed against his chest, and wrapped his arm around her sternum. Feeling her heartbeat increasing underneath his grip, he grimaced at what he had to do to stop her.

          She had to defend herself, and while she was still conscious, she ripped herself out of Tony's head. He had enough hatred without her even being in his head that she did not feel as though her change of plan altered her task. She had to survive, she had to fight for her own life too. 

           The man who had his arms around her throat now, trying to bring her to submission, was not the Winter Soldier. She was disappointed in him for being weak, and so she got inside of his head and decided to bring forth that weakness. But when she entered his mind, she was astonished by what she saw. She saw herself, not as the Huntress, but as the woman she really was underneath the mask of a killer. She saw the first time Bucky opened his eyes and saw her sitting above him in this very base, with his body broken and bruised from the fall. She saw the look in his eyes when he realized who he was as he hunted her through the Siberian mountains. She saw the memory of him struggling to regain control of his mind in the motel, and then again as they travelled across the Atlantic Ocean with the hopes to find some place safe enough for them to live. The moment he realized he loved her, every single moment that built up who they were as individuals and as a couple. It filled her head and she gasped, her first instinct was to tap Bucky's arm as she had done when they were training together.

          Bucky released her in a split second as he had done many times in their training, a hopeful look in his eyes. "Ophelia? O?"

         She looked down at the fight below, and glanced back at Bucky. Her hand moved to her mouth as she looked startled, shocked and broken. "I'm so sorry."

           When he realized that she was back to herself, there was a quick look of relief in his eyes that could not be held onto. His best friend was fighting for his life, and it was a fight he could not remain out of any longer. He had dealt with Ophelia after she'd been used by Zemo, but he would have to address it with her on another day, when there was not so much turmoil going on. He gripped her shoulder and gave her a look that made her feel as though everything was going to be okay, and then he left to join the fight; Captain America's shield was beside him, and he held it in his firm grasp. "I have to finish this."

          "Together," she said, and Bucky did not argue this time, he did not tell her to leave this time.